About Dodo Aisin Gioro

Dodo 多鐸, Apr. 2, 1614-1649, Apr. 29, the first Prince Yü (Yü Ch'in-wang 豫親王), known in his day as Shih Wang 十王, was the fifteenth son of Nurhaci [q.v.] and commander of the Bordered White Banner. He was the youngest of three sons born to Empress Hsiao-lieh [q.v.], his elder brothers being Ajige and Dorgon [qq. v.]. At first he was given the rank of a prince of the third degree, but in 1636 was elevated to a Ch'in-wang or prince of the first degree with the designation, Yü. Like his brothers, he assisted Abahai [q.v.] in various campaigns against the Chinese, the Mongols and the Koreans. In 1639 he was degraded for a minor offense, but in 1642 was made a prince of the second degree for his share in the taking of Sung-shan and Chin-chou (see under Hung Ch'êng-ch'ou). When the Manchu army under Dorgon entered Peking Dodo was again made a prince of the first degree, given the title of Ting-kuo Ta Chiang-chün 定國大將軍 and placed in command of an army to conquer more territory. He advanced through Honan to Shênsi while Ajige led another army to the same province along a northern route. Dodo repeatedly defeated the forces of Li Tz'û-ch'êng [q.v.] and finally (early in 1645) won a decisive battle over him at T'ung-kuan, Shênsi. Late in 1644 he was ordered to proceed southward to Nanking where the Ming Prince, Chu Yu-sung [q.v.], had set up his Court. He succeeded in breaking through the Ming defenses north of the Yangtze River, and entered Nanking on June 8, 1645, continuing to break down the opposition in Kiangnan and Chekiang. After Hung Ch'êng-ch'ou and Lekedehun [qq. v.]took over the government at Nanking Dodo returned to Peking where he was given the new designation, Prince Te-yü 德豫親王. In 1646 he was ordered to subdue the Sunid Mongols who had rebelled and gone over to the Kh alkas (Outer Mongolians). Dodo won several battles over the Sunid rebels and pursued them to the Kerulun and Tula Rivers. Although the Tushetu Khan sent twenty thousand men to the rescue of the Sunids, the latter were badly defeated. Several years later the Sunids and the Tushetu Khanate became submissive and began again to pay tribute. Dodo returned to Peking in October 1646, and was personally met outside the city gate by the youthful Emperor Shih-tsu. In 1647 he was made assistant regent to succeed Jirgalang [q.v.], and died two years later of smallpox.

When Dorgon was posthumously condemned for treason (1651), Dodo, who was his r elative, was also posthumously condemned a year later, and reduced to a Chün-wang 郡王 or prince of the second degree. In 1671 his grandnephew, Emperor Shêng-tsu, canonized him as T'ung 通; and when Emperor Kao-tsung, in 1778, reevaluated the merits and demerits of the princes who founded the dynasty, Dodo was posthumously restored to a prince of the first degree and his name was entered in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Dodo's second son, Doni 多尼, (d. 1661, posthumous name 宣和), at first succeeded his father as a prince of the first degree with the designation Hsin 信, but in 1652 he was reduced to a Chün-wang, a rank which in 1661 was inherited by his second son, Oja 鄂扎 (d. 1702). Doni took part in the conquest of Kweichow and Yunnan (see under Hung Ch'êng-ch'ou). In 1690 Oja served under Ch'ang-ning [q.v.] in the campaign against Galdatt [q.v.], and took part in subsequent wars. The rank of Hsin Chünwang passed on to two of Oja's sons and then to his grandson. In 1778 the rank was once more -given the designation Yü Ch'in-wang in memory of Dodo, and with it the privilege of perpetual inheritance. Thereafter Dodo's branch of the Imperial Clan became known as one of the Eight Great Families (see under Dorgon ).

The novel, 鶼鰈姻緣 Chien-tieh yin-yüan (printed 1914-15), deals with the alleged marriage of Dodo to a Chinese widow, née Liu 劉. The story is probably based on one recounted in the small work, Kuo-hsü chih, written about 1673 (see under Bolo). There, too, a prince is said to have married a Chinese widow, but the evidence points to Bolo [q.v.] as the prince in question, and not Dodo.

The residence of Dodo and his descendants in Peking, known as Yü-wang fu 豫王府, was on the site of the present Peking Union Medical College.